Man Steals Over 7k of Scratch Cards

Shocking scenes taking place last month in Stevenage Magistrates’ Court in Hertfordshire as a local man plead guilty to the theft of thousands of pounds worth of lottery Scratch cards from a Sainsbury’s in his local town of Buntingford, also in Hertfordshire.

The accused man is nineteen year old Scott Martin Caine, who admitted to both stealing the scratch cards and falsely claiming a lottery scratch card prize. The total value of the prize was £1000. Caine stole the scratchcards from his local store during a succession of thefts which took place between September of 2013 and April of 2014. The total value of the scratchcards he stole amounted to £7247 – a considerable loss for the supermarket.

But Caine could not escape justice forever. On the 20th of June this year he was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work by Stevenage Magistrates Court. He was also required to pay back compensation on the stolen items to the Sainsbury’s store, as well as a £60 victim’s surcharge. This brought the total amount that he was required to pay to Sainsbury’s up to £7,301.

On top of all this, Caine has been ordered to pay compensation for the false scratchcard prize claim which he made shortly before the New Year, on December the 18th of last year – meaning that he is required to pay back the £1000 in full. Finally, Caine is also required to play £85 to the Crown Prosecution service. Bringing all of this together, the total amount which Caine is required to pay is £8,386 in addition to the 150 hours of unpaid work.

Scratch card theft is a surprisingly common occurrence which can take place both in large scale chain supermarkets, as well as independent corner shops. In many cases, it may be because the perpetrator has financial worries relating to poor income or debt. One example of this is in the story of the W.H. Smith’s store manager who stole £7000 worth of scratch cards in November of last year. It could very well be that people view scratch card theft as being a less serious crime than directly stealing cash, or else perhaps it is simply easier for criminals to claim back cash from stolen scratchcards than it is for them to steal money.

Regardless of reason, as demonstrated here scratch card theft is taken very seriously as a crime and can result in establishments losing massive amounts of cash.